


Red Asphalt

by saintsrow1



Series: Violet Grey [3]
Category: Saints Row
Genre: F/M, Mentions of Blood, post red asphalt feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-10
Updated: 2019-02-10
Packaged: 2019-10-25 11:38:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17724470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saintsrow1/pseuds/saintsrow1
Summary: Carlos’ death takes a toll on the boss. Luckily they don’t have to deal with it alone.





	Red Asphalt

It started as a murmur through the crew on the upper level of the hideout. Johnny was standing at the bar, tuning out Shaundi and Pierce bickering over by the couches about some TV show they were watching. Gat tapped the edge of his phone against the counter, waiting for the boss to call him back. Violet had headed out to meet up with Carlos hours ago, for something probably Brotherhood related. If it was something that had to handled immediately, she'd text him, but if not she'd just head back. That was what they'd agreed, hours ago. Thing was, she should have been back by now, particularly because they had intended to go out for their regular Freckle Bitches run that evening. Now though? It was fuckin' night time, and judging from the lightly soaked gang members that had been filtering it, it was raining pretty hard out too.

Johnny taps his phone against the counter again for the hundredth time. He was starting to get antsy. No, antsy would have described him an hour and three unanswered calls ago. Now he was fucking worried. Vi could handle herself better than anyone he knew, sure, but she didn't skip out on plans like this. Why wasn't she picking up? Had something happened? What was he accomplishing by waiting around for her to call him back? _Fuck it,_  he thinks, and moves to start heading outside to go looking for boss himself.

Just as Johnny pushes himself away from the bar, the murmurs from the rank and file grow into fierce whispering, and Johnny looks up to the upper level just in time to watch the crowd quickly part and a weirdly familiar figure emerge, headed slowly towards the stairs. It takes Johnny a second to process who he's looking at, but once he does, even he can't school the look of shock that appears on his face.

It's Violet, completely soaked through. Her hair bun came undone at some point, so her long blonde hair is plastered to her face and shoulders, her eyeshadow smudged all over. She has her high heels in her hand, one of them seemingly broken. But all this could have just meant that boss had gotten caught out in the rain. It was the cuts and scrapes and particularly the giant bloody smear down her front that made Johnny suck in a breath. The stain went from her chest all the way down the front of her jeans, half washed out by the rain, but still stark against her white shirt.

All eyes turned to boss as she descends the stone steps, and it isn't until she makes it to the bottom that someone finally breaks the tension in the air.

"Boss-" Pierce starts, beginning to approach her, trying to address the situation. Violet doesn't even glance at him and continues walking, eyes set on the bar. By the time she's standing next to Johnny and grabbing an unopened beer, Gat finally finds his tongue again.

"Boss, what the fuck happened?" Johnny asks. Violet doesn't react, popping the cap off the beer on the edge of the counter. She raises it to her lips, knocking it back and practically gulping down half the bottle before she tips it back down. "Vi-" Johnny tries quietly, but Boss interrupts.

"I'm fine." she says flatly. "It's not my blood." Violet takes another swig of the beer, and Johnny gets a sick feeling in his gut. Turning around to face the rest of the room, he sees Shaundi glancing back and forth between Pierce and himself, at a loss as to what to do. Pierce holds his hands up in a mock surrender, and the rest of the room looks on and whispers amongst themselves. Gat starts thinking. Anything Violet does always wound up on TV, and if she wasn't going to fill them in…

"Yo, turn on the news." Johnny says suddenly. No one in the room moves an inch, and irritation begins to burn inside Johnny's gut. "Turn on the fuckin' news!"  He yelled this time, and a random Saint quickly jumps up and switches on the nearby television. Jane Valderamma's droning voice soon fills the room, and Violet takes another drink, as if preparing herself.

"…mutilated body of a member of the Third Street Saints, identified as a one Carlos Mendoza, was found this evening after a slew of gang violence shook the docks of Stilwater. Eyewitness reports and streaks of blood all over the roads tell us that he was chained to the back of a pickup truck and dragged along the street for quite a ways, though a gunshot wound to his head seems to be the actual cause of death. Whether it was a execution or an act of mercy, we may never know. I'm Jane Valderamma, and this is Stilwater Crime News."

Shocked whispers fill the room as the news settles in, and Johnny whips back around to face the boss, only to find she's no longer standing next to him. Eyes darting over the room, he sees her disappearing over the top of the stairs. Rushing to catch up with her, Johnny pushes his way through the crowd over to the stairs, running up them and down the hallway, finally catching sight of Violet heading towards the elevator.

"Boss!" He yells after her, but she keeps walking. "Vi!" He tries, trying to yell and keep his voice down at the same time, finally catching up enough to grab her arm this time. There was dried blood on her hands, he noticed. The pull on her arm seems to stop her in her tracks, and she finally looks back towards Johnny, the sight of her face causing him to suck in a breath. Her expression was just… blank.  _Fuck_. "Vi," He lowers his voice to a soft tone, "where the fuck are you goin'?" He asks, tightening his hold on her wrist just a touch. Boss blinks at him, holding his stare, and opens her mouth uselessly for a few moments before replying.

"My apartment." She rasps, as if he just asked the stupidest question on earth. Johnny just blinks in surprise, because she's already soaked and dripping all over the carpet, and he's fairly certain her feet are bleeding judging from the bloody footprints she's leaving behind. Fuck, what the hell had happened to her? Suddenly, Violet breaks eye contact, gaze shifting to stare at the floor between them. Johnny finally notices that she's shivering from the cold, and the sight of her, the fiercest person he knew, like this, was scaring the hell out of Gat.

"You're not going out in the fuckin' rain again. Come on." Johnny sighs, lightly guiding her towards the bedroom door along the side of the hallway (his room now, Violet had given it to him after… Aisha). Violet hesitates, but follows without a word, and as soon as they're inside Gat shuts the door behind them for some privacy. Letting go of boss's wrist, Johnny leaves her shivering in the center of the room as he begins rifling through the dresser, soon pulling out a clean pair of grey sweatpants and a black t-shirt. Turning back to Violet, he pushes the clothes into her hands, careful not to touch her bloodstained shirt with the clean fabric. "Yo, here." He says simply, then points at the bathroom. Suddenly he was glad Vi had refused the plans to put in a hot tub in place of a full bathroom. "Go take a shower before you catch somethin'."

Violet stares blankly at the clothes in her hands for a moment, before finally seeming to register what he had said, nodding quietly and making her way over to the bathroom, shutting the door behind her. Soon the sounds of water running fills the air, and Gat sits down heavily on the edge of the bed, running a hand over his face. Fuck. Carlos was dead, and whoever did it was probably gunning for the rest of their lieutenants too. Johnny momentarily stands back up and heads over to the door, opening it enough to wave a random Saint over to tell them to inform Pierce and Shaundi that they were confined to the hideout until the boss said otherwise. Gat could just  _picture_  their faces as they protested, but it was for their own good.

Returning to sit on the edge of the bed, Gat waits for Violet to finish showering. It takes a while, but eventually he hears the water shut off, and it wasn't long til Vi opened the door. The too-big clothes he had lent her looked a little silly, but now wasn't the time to poke fun at her for it. Johnny notices that she'd bandaged up her feet with the first aid kit he kept in the bathroom as well. Gesturing for boss to sit down, Violet slowly moves over and sinks down beside him on the bed. They sit in silence for a while, Johnny simply waiting for her to tell him what happened, until finally Violet speaks.

"I shot him." She breathes out, and Gat isn't surprised by that; he'd figured that might have been what happened judging from the details in the news report. "I couldn't get him unchained, and he was fucking… bleeding everywhere and screaming and I had to…" Vi trails off, balling her hands into fists on her knees, and doesn't continue. She doesn't have to.

"Yo, you did what you had to." He offers, but he knows it's not going to help. When Violet keeps her head down and doesn't reply, Johnny knows he has to do  _something_  here. Cautiously, Gat awkwardly settles a hand on her shoulder, worried Violet will flinch away, but to his surprise she doesn't. She just lets out a tired sigh.

"I have to call Troy for the body…" Violet says, and Johnny shakes his head.

"That can wait." He insists, and silence descends over them again for a few moments. "Hey…" Johnny starts, "you wanna watch some Bobby and Amber?" He can’t think of anything to do to make it easier other than take her mind off of it. When Violet nods, Johnny jumps up and grabs the TV remote, then walks back and settles down against the headboard of the bed. Flicking the TV on, he switches channels while waiting for Violet to settle in, but to his surprise she doesn’t move from the end of the bed.

"Yo." Violet turns to him, exhaustion and grief written all over her face. The sight stabs at Gat's heart. Finally, he holds his arm out at his side, signaling she should come sit against him. "Come here." He says. Violet's eyes go wide at the offer, and she hesitates at first, but after a moment she awkwardly clambers over the bed, maneuvering herself next to him. As soon as she's settled, Gat lays his arm over her shoulders, pulling her over to lean on him. She'd held him once while he cried his eyes out in front of her, this was the least he could do to return the favor. Violet goes stiff at the contact, but doesn't pull away, and Johnny strokes her shoulder with a thumb, trying to get her to loosen up.  _Relax. I got you._

A half an hour later both of them are asleep, leaned against each other, the TV blaring in the background.


End file.
